


oasis

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Splash Free, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 19:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7235137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Bonus Round 2 of SASO. The prompt was <a href="https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/13854.html?thread=5308446#cmt5308446">this incredible image of Rin pouring water over Haru</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oasis

**Author's Note:**

> Out of everything I've written for SASO so far this thing is what I'm most likely to come back to someday. It’s part of a larger story I just don’t have the skill or time to write just yet.

The water of the oasis had never felt so soothing. Haru was tired, a tiredness that went down to his bones. He’d been away from the city for months, away from the oasis, away from the people he loved. Half of that time had been spent scouting the border, monitoring caravan movements, figuring out who was smuggling what and why. The other half had been lost in travel time. Getting to the border had been easy enough—as easy as crossing a desert ever could be anyway—but the journey back had tested him to his physical limits. A heatwave had struck, making the already hellish passage through the desert even more unbearable. He’d gotten lucky: he’d run into a group of bandits. The water he stole from them had carried him through heatwave. Then, as he’d finally almost reached his beautiful city, a sandstorm had struck, delaying his return home for another week. He could have died—would have died if he’d been someone else.

“Water.” He closed his eyes and relaxed at the edge of the oasis. Water poured over him. He imagined he was in a waterfall (he’d seen a waterfall once during his travels and hadn’t been able to forget the beauty of it) enjoying an endless stream of water, rushing down on him from above. Suddenly it was over and the illusion shattered. Water dripped down his face from his hair, but he could already feel it drying in the hot desert sun. It was a miracle the oasis didn’t dry up as well.

“Water,” Haru demanded again. A wave of water hit his face. If Rin had meant to annoy him, it had backfired. He welcomed the wave. He wanted Rin to splash him again.

“I’m not your servant.”

Haru pursed his lips. It was almost a challenge. Rin was the king. No one was allowed to tell him what to do. Which was why Haru enjoyed doing just that.

“Water,” he demanded again.

Another wave hit him. “I haven’t seen you in months,” he whined, ”let’s race.”A small smile tugged at Haru’s lips at the way Rin was childishly demanding his attention. It was very unkingly of him; Haru approved.

“Tired.”

“If you think you can’t keep up with me after being away for so long, that’s fine. I win by default then.”

Haru twitched. He thought it was rather rude of Rin to remind him he hadn’t been able to swim for so long. The small oases he’d visited during his travels were nothing compared to this one. Haru didn’t feel biased to say the royal family’s private oasis was the most beautiful oasis in the world.

He took off across the water, racing to the other side. He could feel Rin chasing after him, his strong strokes sending ripples through the water. Rin wasn’t going to catch up to him. He was too far behind. Haru smirked.

“Cheater,” Rin splashed him again when he finally caught up, oblivious to the way Haru closed his eyes in pleasure. Haru considered pointing out that he liked it when Rin splashed him—to let him know it wasn’t an effective means of punishment. He decided against it. He was enjoying himself too much.

“Rin.” He stood and walked towards Rin. This end of the oasis was shallow enough that he was comfortably out of the water from the waist up. They were both naked, expect for splatters of jewelry. Haru had his arm bands; Rin had that and more. His eyes wandered across Rin’s body. He was fit and muscular in a way that was much like a soldier, which made sense. He’d been trained in the military arts since childhood. He was better at swordplay than Haru, but his predictable by the book manner meant in the practical realm he faltered against Haru’s dirty tactics. It showed he’d never been in a real fight. Haru played with the charms on Rin’s necklace. His hands were dark against Rin’s skin. He’d certainly tanned from all his travels, but Rin was paler than when Haru had left. He must not have left the palace much while Haru was gone.

“I missed you.”

“I hate when you leave,” said Rin.

“I’m the best at what I do.”

Rin snorted. Haru took offense at that. He _was_ the best at what he did, which was spying, gathering information, and on occasion, dispatching Rin’s enemies. “I already have more than enough spies, assassins, and military men monitoring every caravan that passes through this kingdom. I don’t need to send my lover on reconnaissance missions too.” Haru splayed his fingers against Rin’s chest, staring at the contrast. “Just admit you hate court life,” Rin joked.

“I hate court life,” Haru said, meaning it. No one quite knew what to do with him. The king’s male lover, not bonded or pledged to him in any way. It didn't help that he’d simply appeared one day, an interloper of indeterminable origin, with no explanation to what his place or title in the palace was. It wasn’t something Haru could tell them anyway—he didn’t understand his place either. He wasn’t Rin’s consort, not officially, but he certainly wasn’t in a casual, physical-only relationship with Rin the way some of the nobility had first assumed, mistakenly pegging him as the start of Rin’s harem. And as for his past—if that became common knowledge most of the kingdom would hate him, if not outright demand his death.

“You’ll cross a desert in the middle of a sandstorm but gossiping with some courtiers? No way, that’s too frightening.”

Haru couldn’t deny it. He hadn’t grown up in a palace like Rin did. He wasn’t used to the type of boring pettiness and backstabbing that plagued Rin’s court. He’d been stolen from his caravan as child—he couldn’t even remember his parents—and trained as an assassin. Fighting, spying, surviving, finding weaknesses—that was what he was good at. Not making small talk. He could kill a man in so many ways he’d lost count, but ask him about poetry, about music, and he was lost. If he’d done his job properly he wouldn’t have to worry about these things: Rin would have been dead years ago. Instead here he was, very much alive. Haru could feel his heart beating in his chest as he traced patterns on his skin.

“Don’t leave again. Stay.”

“And do what?”

Rin shrugged. “You’ll find something. Would that be so bad? To live somewhere permanently instead of always wandering?”

“I don’t wander. I’m just not the type to stay in one place. It makes me restless.” As he said it, it felt like a lie in his mouth. Maybe it had been true at one point, but now? There had been times in the desert where all he’d been able to think about was going home and seeing Rin. When he’d ran out of water, he was sure he was going to die, but it wasn’t his death that had frightened him, it was dying somewhere so far from the city he loved, from the man he loved.

“Are you restless now?” Rin asked.

”No,” Haru said truthfully. He felt rooted in Rin’s presence. It was being away from him now that made him feel restless to return.

“Try it for a while. Stay put for one year. See if it’s so terrible to live with me.”

“Okay.”

They kissed, Rin’s necklace swinging between them. This city was Haru’s home. Rin’s city. He would stay. He would stop ignoring the roots he’d planted. The roots that kept growing, tangling up with Rin’s as they spread, making it harder and harder to leave each time. No more. He wasn‘t Haru-the-assassin or Haru-the-spy or Haru-the-wanderer anymore. He was just Haru. It was strange how freeing it felt to be nothing but himself.


End file.
